While the prime minster was on his way back to Ottawa (for a stopover before heading to London and then Normandy), Andrew Scheer was elsewhere, and Jagmeet Singh was the only major leader present. That left it up to Pierre Poilievre to lead off, and he spun a bunch of fiction about carbon prices impoverishing Canadians. Bill Morneau said that just because Poilievre says things, it doesn’t make it true, and he listed their Middle Class™ tax cuts and Canada Child Benefit as leaving Canadians better off. Poilievre whinged about the cancellation of boutique tax credits, and he raised the spectre of higher taxes because of the deficit — which is fiscally illiterate — and Morneau noted that they cancelled boutique tax credits because they only benefitted the wealthy. Poilievre again insisted there would be “massive tax increases,” and Morneau reiterated that the typical family of four was $2000 better off now than under the Conservatives. Gérard Deltell took over in French, and he worried about deficits,  and Morneau offered some pabulum on investing in Canadians. Deltell raised the canard that Morneau didn’t run deficits on Bay Street, and Morneau quoted the declining debt-to-GDP ratio. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and in French, he worried about corporate tax rates, to which Morneau reminded him of the new tax brackets they put in for the wealthy. Singh tried again in English, and Morneau reminded him that the corporate rate is competitive with the US, and that they put in rules for transparency for offshore holdings as well as taxing the wealthy. Singh railed about the rich not paying their fair share, and Navdeep Bains listed off accomplishments under this government including a million new jobs. Singh tried again in French, and this time Jean-Yves Duclos listed the benefits of the government investing in the Middle Class™.

Round two, and Candice Bergen raised the Manitoba-Minnesota transmission line (Sohi: We have to respect the rights of Indigenous communities and there are outstanding issues that we want to resolve), Alain Rayes the government of being paternalistic with provinces (Champagne: We worked with the Quebec government on this recent infrastructure announcement; Garneau: I was just in Halifax to announce new projects for transportation corridors), and Shannon Stubbs worried about the Trans Mountain pipeline (Sohi: We need to ensure that we fulfil the Federal Court guidelines around Indigenous consultations). Jenny Kwan railed about the “genocide” declaration from the MMIW Inquiry report (Bennett: We accept these findings, and our job now is to come up with a national action plan), and Sheri Benson demanded intercity transport (Garneau: We are working with provinces and will co-fund some northern routes). Jacques Gourde and Rosemary Falk demanded more funding for the Auditor General (Murray: We increased his budget by $41 million while your party voted against it, and cut his budget), and Mark Strahl railed that the government was trying to “stack the deck” (Gould: Let’s look at your own record of election interference). Georgina Joilibois demanded more funds around MMIW in Northern Saskatchewan (Bennett: We are reviewing the recommendations and will work with communities to come up with an action plan), and Niki Ashton railed about the situation in Grassy Narrows (O’Regan: The hope was to sign an agreement, and the conversations are ongoing in the process of consensus-building).

FFS, the federal government didn’t need to exert federal jurisdiction on TMX BECAUSE IT’S ALREADY FEDERAL JURISDICTION. Making a declaration doesn’t make Section 35 obligations disappear. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 4, 2019

Round three saw questions on allegations that there are Mexican cartel members in Canada (Goodale: You are using statistics that are fabricated), the family reunification settlement (Hussen: Your record was a backlog of 167,000 and an eight-year wait time, which we fixed), labour shortages in rural areas (Hajdu: We are aware of the increased volumes, and have dedicated more money and resources, and trying to find a more efficient processes), rural cell coverage (Jordan: The fall economic statement included incentives for companies to extend coverage), gas prices in BC (McKenna: Jason Kenney called climate change the “flavour of the month” and Doug Ford’s climate plan will cost twice as much money to do less than ours), Paris targets (McKenna: Climate change is real and it’s an emergency, and will you support our motion), internal trade barriers (Morneau: We are taking what steps we can and are working with provinces to get this done), workers with developmental disabilities getting fired (Qualtrough: We will find jobs for these workers, and I have been working with the organisation), livestock trade with China (Bibeau: We are working closely with farmers in all sectors, and we are monitoring this situation closely), immigration services in the Cuban embassy (Hussen: Online services are available and we are doing what we can to assist; Freeland: I spoke to our diplomats in Havana three weeks ago, and their health and welfare is our main concern), and the cost of pharmaceuticals (Damoff: We are taking bold steps to help Canadians save billions on drugs).

The concern trolling about meeting the Paris targets is rich. #QP pic.twitter.com/3nkdTzlKEn

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 4, 2019

Overall, it was a day full of incredulous and untrue things being said, particularly around the state of the economy, and while we got some minor pushback from Bill Morneau and others, it was pretty weak sauce in allowing these same falsehoods to remain on the record and these blatantly false narratives to continue to fester. But hey, not calling out lies is “sunny ways” or something. Ralph Goodale was a bit more forceful in calling out the false numbers around supposed members of Mexican cartels who have infiltrated Canada, but so long as you have Toronto Sun articles pushing dubious stories, we’ll have Conservatives repeating it on the record and a need for some more vigorous pushing back against it by the government. They should start developing the stomach to start doing so.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Michael Barrett for a tailored black suit with a crisp white shirt and a navy plaid tie, and to Chrystia Freeland for a short-sleeved black dress. Style citations go out to Kirsty Duncan for a black top and slacks with a dusky rose jacket with bold florals across it, and to to Robert Sopuck, whose hateful brown corduroy jacket was bad enough, but he paired it with taupe cargo pants as well as a dark grey waistcoat, logout grey shirt and grey striped tie. But seriously — cargo pants?